Hearing

(Hearing and study of scriptures)

Hearing or Shravan means listening stories of God ,
yoga principles, scriptures by guru and self study of scriptures.
Devotee has to follow hearing, no matter he choose which way (Hath yoga,
karma yoga, bhakti yoga, jnana yoga etc.), practicing with or without guru.
In first step of yoga system Initiation (Diksha), guru /god purifies the
disciple and provides sacred holy books, scriptures as a means for
self-study, and he also teaches him personally, because meaning of
initiation is to make disciple qualify to understand secrets related to God.
Now the second step is to reveal secrets of God to him. If those
secrets are not revealed to him how and what can he understand?
Therefore, he has to know these secrets either by self study or by listening
from guru after initiation etc, until all illusions are cut-down.
Secrets of God means the viewpoints and the ideas by means of which illusion
is cut-down and supreme-self is realized.

In
short, setting realization of supreme-self as a goal, self study of
scriptures with the wish to meet God, by giving-up all desires, emotions,
thoughts (i.e. telling lie, theft, violence, rape, conspiracy, laziness
etc.) and taking resolution to not to do them again, and keeping faith and
devotion in only God and listening stories of God by getting association of
saints, is known as hearing or shravan.

Aim of hearing or shravan is to inspire deep love in the
lotus feet of God. When this love is developed in the heart by
listening stories of God and self-study of scriptures, then mind diverts
from worldly things, and enjoyments, and devotee doesn't like them.
Qualities of Sattva Guna (purity and goodness) is developed in devotee by
self study and hearing of scriptures with practicing weakening of
desires and necessities. The qualities are speaking truth (satya),
non-violence (ahimsa), not-stealing (asteya), celibacy (brahmacharya),
possessionlessness (aparigraha), purity (shauch), satisfaction (santosh),
penance (tapa), self study (swadhyaya), taking shelter of God (Ishwar
Pranidhan). All kind of devotees has to practice these qualities.
Each quality has its own specific power.

Speaking
Truth (Satya)

:

By speaking truth all the time our each and every
word becomes true and we do not need to tell a lie.

Non-Violence (Ahimsa)

:

By not giving physical,
mental and vocal pain to anyone we get infallible power and surrounding
area also becomes non-violent and peaceful. The place where it is
practiced becomes so sacred that even natural enemies abandon their
enmity at or near that place.

Not-Stealing (Asteya)

:

By not stealing
anything, all things of world automatically comes to us, even though we
do not need them at all.

Celibacy (Brahmacharya)

:

By giving up sexual
desire from mind, body and speech and protecting semen, our physical,
mental and intellectual abilities and potentialities increases to
infinite, and great courage and divine force is produced in mind, body,
intellect and senses.

Possessionlessness (Aparigraha)

:

By doing effort only to
accomplish minimum requirement to live, not-collecting money and other
things unnecessarily, we can see our previous births, and mind diverts
from outer world to inner world and the way of yoga practice opens
swiftly.

Purity (Shauch)

:

By keeping body,
clothes, home, mind and thoughts pure and giving up attachment, hatred,
jealousy, anger etc., we gets detachment from our own body parts and
touch of other. Detachment from body increases the speed of yoga
practice very much.

Satisfaction (Santosh)

:

By being satisfied in
each and every situation, reducing desires to zero, not feeling jealous
by seeing others prosperity, our mind stops wandering to and fro and
mind becomes desire less. By being desire less all desires are
fulfilled.

Penance (Tapa)

:

By accepting all
physical and mental pains during yoga practice considering them wish of
God, our sins are destroyed and virtues are increased and gets full
control over body and senses.

Self Study (Swadhyaya)

:

By study and reading
scriptures which increases interest in yoga practice, make us realize
our duties, and reveals secrets related to god, we see the God and the
God shows right path to liberation and remove obstacles during yoga
practice.

Taking shelter of God (Ishwar
Pranidhan)

:

By completely
surrendering ourselves to God, considering only God as mother-father,
guru, everything, giving up all desires, following orders of God and
considering ourselves his servant and chanting the praises of God takes
us to realization of supreme-self.

Indian Rishis listed them as Yama and Niyama. Former five
are known as yama and later five are known as niyama. When a
devotee/disciple practice these qualities, opposing thoughts arise to create
obstacles in yoga practice, i.e. telling a lie, violence, stealing,
no-celibacy or desire for sex, possession, impurity, non-satisfaction,
non-penance, diversion of mind etc. But he must stay firm on qualities
of sattva guna by constantly thinki8ng about it, because these qualities are
opposite to negative thoughts and hence have the power to conquer these
obstacles. By doing so, these obstacles are destroyed.

Lord Shiva, Kak Bhushundi, Sanatkumar, and all the saints
always tells stories of God and devotees listen and hear it carefully, and
gets realization of supreme-self.

By practicing hearing and study, wisdom (viveka,
discretion of true-false) is produced slowly in the mind of
devotee/disciple. Then he contemplate on True-False(satya-asatya),
eternal-transient (nitya-anitya). This contemplation is the third step
of yoga system.